NEWSLETTER 2018 Arborfield Garrison

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Metal Detector Finds P4

Reading Abbey Quarter P11 Gateway after restoration © Archaeology

BERKSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGY Welcome to our new edition of Berkshire Archaeology News

We hope you enjoy our latest and you can read more on the newsletter with news of some conservation works to the Abbey exciting recent discoveries and ruins on page 11. archaeological projects in east Berkshire. In this newsletter, We have some sad news to amongst other items, you can read report. David Williams FSA, about a previously unknown Early our Finds Liaison Officer, died Neolithic monument at Datchet unexpectedly in December. David (also reported in The Guardian!); was passionate about archaeology a once lost, now found, Bronze and especially artefacts. He had Age burial mound in Ascot; and a deep and wide knowledge of the possible paw print of a cat on finds of all periods and the Finds a sherd of Iron Age pottery from Liaison Officer role provided him David Williams, Finds Liaison Shinfield. with an opportunity he relished. Officerreproduced by kind He will be greatly missed. permission of the Portable The above image is of the recently Antiquities Scheme conserved Abbey Gateway in Past editions of our newsletter BERKSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGY Reading, part of the complex of are available on our website BERKSHIRE RECORD OFFICE buildings and structures of the (www.berkshirearchaeology.org. 9 COLEY AVENUE nationally important medieval uk) but you are always welcome READING Reading Abbey. The newly to contact us at any time with RG1 6AF restored Abbey Gateway was news or comment on the E. [email protected] formally unveiled in April this year archaeology of east Berkshire. T. 0118 937 5976 Berkshire Archaeology is an archaeological advice service for; 1 Soldier’s Pillar – a Bronze Age barrow, lost and now found - at Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot

Heatherwood Hospital lies to the west of Ascot Racecourse and is an important asset to the local community. It is nearing its 100th birthday, as the Hospital first admitted patients in 1922. It originally specialised in the treatment of tuberculosis and an aerial photographic of the Hospital, taken in 1931, shows the purpose-built Hospital, with open verandas with awnings, facing south to provide fresh, clean air to its patients. These elements of the original Hospital still survive today within the Hospital site.

Less fortunate was the impressive large mound of a presumed Bronze Age barrow An aerial photograph of Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot, taken in which can be seen just left of 1931 showing the Soldier’s Pillar Bronze Age burial mound centre in the aerial photograph. © Historic This barrow, named Soldier’s Pillar on late Victorian Ordnance that it was built around 1,450 Hospital in 2017 remarkably Survey maps, was one of four BC, nearly 3,500 years ago. found that below-ground traces Bronze Age burial mounds of the monument still survive. documented at or near this Unfortunately the Soldier’s Pillar The infilled ditch around the location. The reason why the barrow mound was flattened barrow, from which the central monument was named Soldier’s during the redevelopment and mound material was quarried, was Pillar is unknown but the aerial expansion of the Hospital in found, along with possible traces of photograph appears to show the 1960s, and it was assumed the original ground surface below a pole or pillar rising from that all trace of this ancient the mound. It is hoped that further the centre of the mound. monument had been lost. investigation of this monument will take place in the future so that A second barrow mound can However exploratory we can learn more about when, be seen behind Soldier’s Pillar, archaeological work at the how and why these burial mounds between the two Hospital were built in this part of Ascot. buildings. Remarkably this monument still survives today within the Hospital grounds The black upper fills of the and is protected by Historic ditch surrounding the Soldier’s England as a Scheduled Pillar barrow mound Monument. An excavation of © Thames Valley Archaeological this Scheduled barrow in the Services early 1970s demonstrated 2 Arborfield Garrison - heritage from the First World War back to the Bronze Age

Land at Arborfield Garrison was first acquired for military purposes in 1904 by the then War Office, for use in the supply and care of horses following the Boer War. Initially on a small scale, the Remount Depot expanded rapidly with the outbreak of the First World War when many temporary buildings and stable blocks were constructed. With the cessation of hostilities in 1918, many of the horses that served in the War were brought back to Arborfield for rehabilitation and sale. However the British military would not need the unprecedented levels of horse power again in 1933 OS map of Arborfield Remount Depot – future conflicts and the Depot reproduced by kind permission of the Berkshire Record Office was scaled back, although not heritage extends back at least Age metalworking. A ditch was officially closed until 1937. two millennia. The exploratory also found full of Roman pottery archaeological work has largely dating to the first millennium Although not associated with taken the form of machine-dug AD, just a decade or two after horses, the military role of trial trenches that are used to Claudius’ invasion of Britain. Pits Arborfield Garrison continued identify any areas of the site and ditches containing medieval for several decades. With the where ancient buried remains pottery show that the land was end of the Garrison, the former survive. This archaeological work, settled and farmed up to the military land is currently in the undertaken by the Museum of establishment of the Remount process of being developed for a Archaeology has found Depot. Archaeological work at the new village community. The site’s evidence for Bronze Age and former Garrison continues and important WWI heritage has Iron Age settlement and Iron further discoveries are awaited! not been lost as the ‘Infirmary Stables’ built in 1911-12 have since 1st century AD been designated as a protected Roman pottery Scheduled Monument and are a on the base of a fitting memorial to the role of ditch the horse in this great conflict © Museum of as we reach the centenary of London Archaeology the end of the Great War.

Meanwhile exploratory archaeological investigations within and around the Garrison are showing that the site’s 3 A ‘tin tabernacle’ is rediscovered at St George’s Hall, Reading

The ‘tin tabernacle’ St George’s Hall in St George’s to the side of St Road, Reading, is an innocuous George’s Church in looking, apparently mid-20th 1899. century church hall set to the Reproduced with the side of the fine, late Victorian, kind permission of church of St George. St George’s Berkshire Record Office Church was consecrated in 1886 © Berkshire Record to a design by Sidney Gambier Office Parry (1859-1948), an architect who designed several churches throughout southern England. The Church was built to service the urban expansion of Reading and also to serve the newly built along the Oxford Road, which housed the Royal Berkshire Regiment. were designed and made in These include the ornate iron kit form to be bought from ‘rose’ window in the east of Interestingly, documentary catalogues. The most common the building, the scalloped research in 2017 by Pre Construct type was timber framed, externally barge boards and corrugated Archaeology has shown that clad with galvanised corrugated iron sheeting nailed to timber although St George’s Hall has the iron and lined with high quality studwork. Decorative iron roof appearance of a 1960s community tongue-and-groove boarding. trusses and the ‘rose’ window building, it was in fact built in show that the iron church was 1880 as a ‘tin tabernacle’ or pre- The ‘tin tabernacle’, built for a originally open to the roof. fabricated corrugated iron building. cost of £748, therefore pre-dates ‘Tin tabernacles’ were frequently St George’s Church and was used These surviving elements built as temporary churches by the congregation while the were hidden when the erected by any denomination. They main church building was under building was converted in the were erected before permanent construction. It would have been late 1950s and early 1960s, buildings could be provided. used for regular church services changing a ‘tin tabernacle’ to In the 19th and early 20th and served a poor community a modern community hall. centuries many ‘tin tabernacles’ of tradesmen, labourers and soldier’s families. Once St George’s Church was built, the ‘tin tabernacle’ was used as a Sunday School into the early 20th century before becoming a more general purpose ‘church hall’.

Survey of St George’s Hall demonstrated that parts of The surviving iron ‘rose’ window of St George’s Church the ‘tin tabernacle’ still survive the ‘tin tabernacle’ and St George’s Hall © Pre Construct Archaeology © Pre Construct Archaeology within the existing structure. 4 Some typical metal detector finds from east Berkshire in 2017

As in most years, a range of Also a more surprising loss is metal finds from east Berkshire a medieval, enamelled harness have been reported to Berkshire pendant found near Reading. Archaeology over the last The pendant is decorated with 12 months, mostly found by the Arms of England, three lions detectorists and recorded on passant gardant, on a field of the Portable Antiquities Scheme red enamel, and retains traces database at www.finds.org.uk. This of gilding. It probably dates to year many are typical of casual the 14th century AD. It seems Medieval enamelled or accidental losses as people in unlikely that this fine item would harness pendant the past have gone about their have been lost without someone reproduced by permission of the everyday business. A good example making every effort to find it. Portable Antiquities Scheme is a silver half groat of Elizabeth I, minted between 1590 and 1592 These finds are typical of the in London and found in range and date of material Forest. The coin is heavily worn recovered by metal detectorists and damaged and so was in and reported to Berkshire circulation for a long period after Archaeology. They provide a it was minted. Less than 2cm in valuable contribution to our diameter and very thin, the coin knowledge of our past, alongside was easily lost, perhaps while its the set piece archaeological owner was out hunting. If the investigations described owner was aware of the loss of Silver half groat of Elizabeth I elsewhere in this newsletter. a silver coin, he or she probably reproduced by permission of the endeavoured to find it but in this Portable Antiquities Scheme case was clearly unsuccessful.

A small, copper animal bell is a similar casual loss. Found within the Royal Borough of Windsor and , it is less than 4cm in diameter and is decorated with two rather chubby faces! It is likely to date to the 17th or 18th centuries. Roman copper alloy brooch It may have been attached to reproduced by permission of the a dog or other small animal. Portable Antiquities Scheme

Perhaps less of a casual but but the pin has been broken more of a deliberate loss is a and perhaps it was therefore Post-medieval copper decorated Roman brooch found deliberately discarded. The brooch animal bell in . This small item dates to the 1st century AD. would have held clothing together reproduced by permission of the Portable Antiquities Scheme 5 A previously unknown Neolithic monument is discovered near Datchet

further investigations in 2017, Archaeology discovered the remains of a previously unknown Neolithic monument. The monument is a causewayed enclosure, so-called because an area was enclosed by regularly spaced ditches, in between which were gaps or ‘causeways’.

Causewayed enclosures were built in the Early Neolithic period between 3,800 and 3,500 BC. They are a rare monument type, with less than 100 known from Britain, mostly across southern England. The causewayed enclosure at Datchet is only the second known example of this monument in east Berkshire, although the other lies nearby at Eton Wick. Remarkably there are also two other examples known in this part of the Thames Valley at Dorney and at Staines (more-or-less under Junction 13 of the M25). The former has never been subject to archaeological investigation while the latter was subject to ‘rescue’ excavation in the 1960s prior to gravel extraction.

The importance of these monuments is that they represent the earliest examples in British prehistory of the formal enclosure of space. They also date to the In last year’s newsletter we Pottery and animal bone (the earliest years of agriculture and reported on prehistoric the domestication of animals in remains of a feast?) close discoveries at CEMEX UK’s gravel to the base of one of the Britain so they were constructed quarry at Riding Court Farm, and used at a period of rapid enclosure ditches north of Datchet. This year we © Wessex Archaeology and seminal change in society. can report that the quarry has not So far only about 25% of the yet given up all its archaeological causewayed enclosure at secrets as, during the course of Datchet has been exposed 6 A previously unknown Neolithic monument is discovered near Datchet

Neolithic but the remainder will be polished stone investigated as the gravel quarry axe from within progresses across the site. the enclosure Current calculations suggest the © Wessex enclosure was 200m long and Archaeology 100m wide, with just a single circuit of ditches defining the space within it. The ditches varied between 0.5m and 1.1m deep. There were no ditches along the north side of the enclosure the ditches around it. To date an interfered with after her death. where a stretch of boggy ground extraordinarily rich collection of A human skull was found in seems to have marked its limit. Neolithic pottery, animal bone another ditch segment but this and struck flint has been found was from a separate individual. So far very few contemporary near the base of the ditches. Over Early Neolithic finds or deposits 3,500 sherds of Neolithic pottery It is early days in the investigation have been found within the have already been recovered, of this intriguing monument. enclosure – an exception is a while human remains were also On present evidence it seems very fine ground and polished found on the base of the ditches. that the enclosure may only have stone axe, slightly damaged, but The remains of a teenage young been used for a short period still an object of great beauty woman, face down, were found. of time. The finds suggest the and highly tactile! The use to Her remains were incomplete monument was used for both which the enclosure was put will – for example the skull was domestic and ‘ritual’, probably therefore mostly derive from the missing – and it may be that feasting, purposes. While many finds that are recovered from her remains were intentionally of the finds can be considered ‘everyday’ items, the quantities and distribution of them in the ditches of the monument hint at more sophisticated and exceptional activities. More of this exciting monument will be excavated in 2018 and we will update readers in our 2019 newsletter!

The Riding Court Farm causewayed enclosure from the air looking east towards and west London © Wessex Archaeology

7 A rare Saxon belt buckle fragment is found at Eton College

Tucked away and hidden behind trees south of the A332 between Eton and lie Eton College’s all-weather tennis courts. When plans to increase the number of tennis courts and sports facilities were proposed, exploratory archaeological excavation revealed a modest number of Bronze Age buried remains, suggesting a small farm, like several known Complete Frankish belt buckle from Saint-Loup, Marne, along this stretch of the Middle France Thames Valley. However further © The Trustees of the British Museum. investigation, demonstrating the unpredictability of buried archaeological remains, actually Frankish belt found the remains of a small Saxon buckle fragment house. This modest structure was from Eton a semi-sunken building, similar College to those found at Castleview © Thames Valley Road, Slough, and reported in Archaeological last year’s newsletter. Scientific Services dating has shown that the Saxon house at Eton College dates to around the 7th century AD.

In this case, however, the remains of the building contained a small fragment of a tinned, copper alloy object, with incised line and punched dot decoration. Although only a tiny fragment, experts at the British Museum have recognised it as a fragment of a much larger belt buckle. In fact, the fragment can almost certainly be compared of belt buckle found in Britain prior to recycling. It was certainly to a complete example from to date making it a rare find. once part of an impressive item, France. The French belt buckle worn by a person of considerable was found in the late The mystery is why do we have importance and status. from a Frankish cemetery found only a small fragment of a much at Saint-Loup, east of Paris and larger item? The jagged edges south of Épernay in the heart of suggest the original buckle may the Champagne region of France. have been deliberately broken The Eton College fragment is up, perhaps by a metalworker only the third piece of this type Bronze Age water holes 8 and burnt flint mounds in

but effective object was over two metres long and largely intact, with Those who travel regularly along three ‘notches’ acting as steps. the Old Wokingham Road in Other finds included pottery and Crowthorne will have watched a fragment of baked clay ‘loom over the last eighteen months weight’. Conditions were also ideal the gradual demolition of the for the survival of environmental buildings and structures of the remains, including insect remains. former Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). As reported Interestingly, one of the mounds in last year’s newsletter, AOC included the foundations of a Archaeology made a record of circular structure. It is unclear most of these structures prior if this was the remains of a to their loss. AOC, on behalf round house or a less substantial of Legal and General, has since structure such as a wind break. gone on to search for older The quality of the evidence that buried remains prior to the has survived should enable further construction of new housing and analysis of these remains to shed they have not been disappointed. some light on the purpose of One of the ‘burnt mounds’ these enigmatic ‘burnt mounds’, The heathland on the Berkshire under excavation with variously interpreted as industrial and border is well known a partially excavated sites, cooking places and saunas. for its surviving upstanding waterhole in the foreground The results will also provide some earthworks, such as the Iron Age © AOC Archaeology really useful information on the hill fort of Caesar’s Camp and nature of this heathland landscape Bronze Age barrows in Ascot and in the later prehistoric period. . However few buried remains have come to light ‘Log ladder’ in situ in in the heathland to show where its waterhole and how the builders of these © AOC Archaeology monuments lived and farmed.

Archaeological discoveries at the former TRL site have begun to redress the balance with the discovery of three prehistoric ‘burnt mounds’ at the site. These ‘burnt mounds’ comprised spreads of highly burnt and shattered flint, which sealed water ‘troughs’ which were served by large, deep water holes at each location. Excitingly all the water holes contained pieces of water-logged wood, some worked, including an in situ log ladder providing access into one of the water holes. This crude 9 The Round Mounds Project - Montem Mound, Slough, and Forbury Hill, Reading

The fragment of belt buckle A reconstruction found at Eton College shows that of the remains of wealthy Saxons were living in the a ‘princely’ Saxon Thames Valley in the 5th to 7th burial at Taplow centuries AD. Further evidence Reconstruction has recently been provided by the drawing by Oxford exciting news that the Montem Archaeology Mound in Montem Lane, Slough, © Buckinghamshire was almost certainly built as a County Council prestigious Saxon burial mound in the 5th or 6th century AD. We reported on the ’s ‘Round Mounds Researchers for the Round the origins of the mound. Project in last year’s newsletter Mounds Project also recently Two bore holes were drilled but we now have their results. investigated Forbury Hill within through the monument. Forbury Gardens, Reading. Examination of the deposits and After coring the Montem Mound, This large mound, up to 35m in finds within them indicated that the University recovered charcoal diameter and 2m high, sits within Forbury Hill is largely composed and a charred cereal grain from the precinct of Reading Abbey, of material dating from the 17th the land surface on top of which which is a nationally important century or later! It seems that it the Mound was constructed. Scheduled Monument. Forbury was built as a Civil War defensive These charred remains were Hill has been interpreted as a earthwork, albeit one that was radio-carbon dated, producing defensive earthwork, constructed subsequently modified to create dates spanning the 5th and 6th during the English Civil war in the hill we now know within the centuries AD. These dates now the 17th century. However the ‘pleasure gardens’ of Forbury provide secure evidence that earthwork may have remodelled Gardens. It remains a possibility the Mound was originally built an earlier medieval castle motte, that Forbury Hill was constructed in the Early Saxon period and which itself may have re-used an prior to the 17th century but no was almost certainly constructed even earlier prehistoric mound. evidence for this was recovered as a burial mound, sealing the Reading University sought from Reading University’s work. remains of an influential and to give a definitive answer to wealthy Saxon! Previously it had been speculated that the Mound Reading was built as a medieval castle University motte but we now know it is researchers 500 years older than originally drilling a borehole thought and it is one of Slough’s through Forbury most important archaeological Hill in front of monuments. A similar Saxon the cameras burial mound survives nearby at © University Taplow. This mound was excavated of Reading by antiquarians in the 19th century and they recovered the remains of a ‘princely burial’, including some extraordinarily fine objects, now held by the British Museum. 10 An Iron Age Moment-in-Time Captured at Shinfield

In last year’s newsletter we filled with domestic rubbish. The paw print, especially the absence reported on the discovery of an remains of a number of smaller of claw marks, suggest that it may Early Bronze Age round barrow, post-built structures were also have been a domestic cat, perhaps amongst other prehistoric features, identified. This was certainly a the settlement’s resident mouser, at Shinfield, south of Reading. modest Iron Age farmstead, one or it may have been a wildcat, Following the completion of the of several now known in this although this species is notoriously fieldwork by Oxford Archaeology, area, which was clearly heavily shy and unlikely to have wandered detailed analysis of the finds from farmed throughout the Iron Age. into a bustling Iron Age settlement. the project has revealed new It was too small for a fox or dog, information about this important The paw print was made on both of which would have left claw site. In particular there has been to the base of a flint-tempered as well as paw marks. If it is indeed the notable discovery of the pot, presumably when the pot the paw of a domestic cat, it would possible imprint of the paw of a was upside down while it was be amongst the earliest recorded small animal on a sherd of Early drying prior to firing. The animal examples for their presence Iron Age pottery (700 – 400 BC). responsible for leaving his or so far recorded in Britain. The sherd was recovered from her mark on this pot was a small a pit, one of several on the site, mammal. The size and shape of the While we will never be able to be certain about its identify, this creature has left its mark from a fleeting moment in time that it wandered across this Iron Age site thereby bringing this site to life today! Once analysis is complete, the results of this project will be published in the Berkshire Archaeological Journal.

Early Bronze Age round barrow at Shinfield © Oxford Archaeology

A cat’s(?) paw print impressed onto a piece of Iron Age pottery © Oxford Archaeology 11 An Update on Reading Abbey Quarter

In our 2016 newsletter, we reported on the Reading Abbey Restored Revealed Project and the exciting Abbey ruin plans to conserve the nationally with sedum important Abbey ruins and to turf capping. create a cultural quarter within Reading the grounds of the former gaol in the monastic complex. By the time background you read this newsletter, these © Reading plans will largely have come to Museum fruition, especially the re-opening of the Abbey ruins to the public in June 2018. If you have not yet visited, now is the time to do so!

Conservation works to the Abbey ruins has included the re-pointing of existing masonry using period- The Museum itself has a new you can find out more about the authentic techniques, restoring permanent display about the project and events at the abbey: a large proportion of the fallen Abbey and its relationship to www.readingabbeyquarter.org.uk masonry and capping the tops of the town. The display includes the walls with a sedum seeded a reconstruction of part of the The restored ruins and the new turf. The sedum turf will absorb Abbey cloisters, highlighting the Museum display rightly place the most of the rain water, preventing many beautifully carved capitals Abbey and its heritage at the heart it entering the core of the walls, that still survive. The gallery also of historic Reading and rightfully which was one of the causes of includes many important objects re-establish Reading Abbey as one previous problems. The results from the Abbey including a 12th of the foremost archaeological are impressive and well worth the century book of religious Latin and historical monuments in wait. Meanwhile repairs to the text from the Abbey’s library and central southern England. Abbey Gateway, include a new many smaller archaeological finds roof and the reconfiguration of the that demonstrate daily life in the inside to allow better use of space. Abbey. The Abbey Quarter now has a dedicated website where In view of the historical and archaeological importance of Museum Reading Abbey, the conservation of London works have included a programme Archaeology of monitoring by archaeological archaeologist and historic buildings specialists at work from the Museum of London monitoring the Archaeology to ensure that conservation a full record of the works is works © made. These will add to the Museum significant archive that already of London exists for this important Archaeology monument in .